Datable

Somewhere between the dawning of a new year and last weekend our little toddler became datable. Datable, as in able to hang out with mom and dad through an entire evening of adult'ish activities and enjoy it with zero pre-planning, and maybe even ask to do it again sometime. I say adult'ish because activity #1 was Ash's first movie in a theater (very adult), but we saw Chipmunks The Squeakquel (more on the side of adult'ish), and then he sat through the whole thing smiling and dancing and just generally being a pleasant movie goer (more adult than most adults...) and when it ended he said, "Mommy - I want to watch the movie again!" And then we went to a hot little Mexican restaurant for dinner where there was a 40 minute wait, so we just pulled ourselves up to the bar and let Ash work his charm with the bartender which wound up scoring us some delicious pre-dinner bites and access to the Jets game.

One movie, one 45 minute wait at the bar, and one entire basket of chips with various homemade dips later we were escorted to our dinner table, which if I recall correctly was at the approximate time Ash is usually escorted to bed. But you never would've known he was a boy past due for his visit with Mr. Sandman, no no no. We, on the other hand, were just waiting for the moment when our perfect Saturday night out would instantaneously come to an end by way of an over-tired, over-forced-to-sit-still-too-long, over-DONE two and a half year old. But it never happened. We even ordered dessert, and after dessert we casually chatted about what a great date the night had been. Cheers.

Just for clarifications sake, it's not that we didn't have full faith in our boy to be able to sit through a movie or a nice meal in a restaurant as we go out together quite frequently. But, we always plan it according to nap time or bed time and with reservations so there's no waiting required and with enough advanced thought so that any lapse in the perfect nature of timing can be met with an activity or snack of the Woody & Buzz Lightyear or Lightning McQueen nature. Yet not one of those former prerequisites were met during this particular evening. It was just night out, dinner and a movie, the three of us datable folks out for laughs with some singing chipmunks and killer Mexican food. Double cheers.